

10 PEOPLES OF THE PHILIPPINES 
the side of religion, the effect of Mohammedanism on its 
converts has been fully as thorough as that of Chris- 
tianity. The latter religion, however, was imparted by 
a dominant Caucasian race which continued to hold itself 
more or less aloof from the natives, whereas Moham- 
medanism was introduced by kindred East Indian 
immigrants who quickly amalgamated with the abo- 
rigines. Christianity and Spanish occupation also 
involved rather deep-going economic change. The 
Mohammedan contented himself with exacting such 
tribute as he could without radically altering existing 
conditions. Except therefore for a few importations, 
especially in the matter of weapons, he worked a less 
profound change in the general culture of the natives 
than the Christian. 
Back of these two great movements of religion and 
general culture, lies a deeper one, the most determinative 
of Philippine civilization. ‘This is an influence, or 
rather a set of influences, emanating from India, These 
influences did not bring a definitely crystallized religious 
cult, or if so, the cult had already disappeared before 
the discovery of the islands by Europeans. They did 
import a mass of religious ideas, practices, and names, a 
considerable body of Sanskrit words, a system of writ- 
ing, the art of metal working, a vast body of mechanical 
and industrial knowledge, and unquestionably a much 
greater degree of cultivation and refinement than had 
existed previously. 
There is no reason to believe that the bulk of this 
immensely valuable cultural material was brought into 
the Philippines by Hindus coming directly from India. 
If so, we should expect to find ruins and other ancient 
remains as evidences of their occupancy; and such have 
not been discovered. It is well known that all the East 
Indies were subjected to very deep Hindu influences. 

